This Technicolor color film was produced in 1956 for the New Jersey Bell Telephone Company, and based on a 1953 John T. Cunningham book This is New Jersey. The film opens with a bird’s eye view of New Jersey (1:00), bordered by Philadelphia and New York City (1:12-1:28), Cape May (1:33) and High Point (1:40). Reminders of the past include a Revolutionary War cannon (4:03), Washington’s Headquarters at Morristown (4:06), Washington’s pistol (4:22), the McConkey Ferry Inn (4:40), where Washington crossed the Delaware at night (4:48-5:26) to secure his Trenton and Princeton victories (5:27). Oxford Furnace was built in 1742 in Warren County (5:46-6:00). The Mount Hope mining operation is shown (6:03-6:26). Steel cables are manufactured in Trenton since 1854 (6:44-7:17), and used on the George Washington Bridge (7:17). Steel goes into Singer sewing machines (7:24), tin cans made in Jersey City (7:31-7:46), irrigation pumps made in Harrison (7:48-8:00), the USS Hartley (DE-1029) made in Camden and launched November 24, 1956 (8:02-8:15), and merchant ships (8:17-8:29). Industrialization began in 1791 along the Passaic River (9:17-9:50). New Jersey is called “the Garden State” due to dairy farms that support 4H and the FFA (10:17-10:47). Various vegetables are picked (10:49-11:14), as are fruit trees (11:15-11:42). New Jersey has Thoroughbred horses (11:52-12:18), orchid farms in Middlesex Borough (12:22-12:43), and eggs sold at Flemington Auctions (12:47-14:11). Cumberland County uses irrigation (14:23-15:19). Seabrook Farms agents use “mobile telephones” for orders (15:21-15:24). A crop duster is shown (15:39-15:46). Rutgers tomatoes are hand-picked and processed at a cannery (15:50-16:43). The Rutgers Experimental Station has made other advances (16:45-17:45). A County Agent drives his Studebaker (17:47) to talk to a farmer. Universities include Rutgers (18:04-18:12) and Princeton with its Nassau Hall and tributes to President Woodrow Wilson (18:13-18:50). Albert Einstein’s house is in the city of Princeton (19:00), as is his place of work, The Institute for Advanced Study (19:08). Other Universities include Seton Hall (19:23), Fairleigh Dickinson (19:31), and Stevens Institute of Technology (19:44). School children run to 1950s bicycles (20:18). Thomas Edison worked at the West Orange Research Laboratories and his private study remains (20:51-21:29), as does his “Black Maria” first motion picture studio (21:29). Research centers include Esso (21:54), Johnson & Johnson (21:59), and Federal Telecommunication Laboratories (ITT) (22:02). Scientists at Bell Telephone Laboratories at Murray Hill do experiments (22:10-22:45). Various medical drugs are produced (22:50-23:39), including at Bristol-Myers. Industries include glassblowing (23:51-24:13), gold jewelry (24:15), tanneries (24:24), and telephone cable production (24:35). Products for sale are transported by trains (24:58), airplanes (25:15), and trucks (25:42). For fun, there’s Atlantic City (25:58) beaches, boardwalks, and casinos; and the 1956 Miss America pageant won by Marian McKnight (26:11-26:53). The Jersey shore has the Barnegat Bay lighthouse (26:55), Cape May (27:12-27:38), Fort Delaware Confederate prison (27:44), the Avalon sand dunes (28:03), the Sea Isle City commercial fishing fleets (28:17-28:46), and freshwater fishing (29:05). New construction continues with 1950s heavy machinery (29:21-29:48). The film ends with flashbacks already seen.

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This film is part of the Periscope Film LLC archive, one of the largest historic military, transportation, and aviation stock footage collections in the USA. Entirely film backed, this material is available for licensing in 24p HD, 2k and 4k. For more information visit http://www.PeriscopeFilm.com